Accomadations in OZ
 

These are the places I'm planning on staying at while in Oz. If anyone has some advice or warnings, it would be most appreciated.

Four Point Sheraton Darling Harbour-Sydney
Quality Hotel Dickson-Canberra
Travelodge Hotel Southbank-Melbourne
Aberdeen Motor Inn-Geelong
Avalon Motel-Mount Gambier
Directors Studio-Adelaide
Novotel Outback-Alice Springs
Quality Hotel Frontier-Darwin
Rendezvous Reef Resort-Port Douglas
Motel Palms-Townsville
Palm Bungalows-Hamilton Island Whitsundays
Chez Noosa-Noosa Heads
Courtyard Surfers Paradise Resort-Gold Coast
Hotel George Williams-Brisbane

By the way, I realize I spelt Accommodations incorrectly. My bad!

You can do better than Courtyard Surfers Paradise - perhaps for position and ambiance I would go for the Phoenician at Broadbeach - better area, better property entirely.

The Quality Inn is probably OK for one night, but the locale, a shopping centre about 3 km north of the city centre is a little lacking in ambience. The hotel adjoins the Canberra Tradesmen's Union Club (the Tradies), which is even shorter on ambience.

Dickson is Canberra's small Chinatown, though, and has a good selection of Asian and other restaurants. I can't recommend the small Italian restaurant off the lobby, though - our evening there was as close to being in a Fawlty Towers episode as I ever want to get.
If you do eat at Dickson, here are a few eateries I feel confident about, all within 5 minutes' walk:
Cantonese: Ruby
Yum cha (dim sum): New Shanghai
Vietnamese: Pho Phu Quoc
Indian: Taj Agra
Malaysian-Chinese: Rasa Sayang
Lao-Thai: Two Sisters
Italian: Belluci's

If you're staying more than one night and would like to be closer to most tourist attractions you might like try somewhere south of the lake, like Kingston.

We will spend two nights in Canberra. The first night we will probably arrive late from the Blue Mountains. The morning after the second night will require us to be at the Airport for a 6 AM flight.

Just read your hotel list. Do you know that Hotel George Williams is part of a YMCA? We've stayed there, there's nothing wrong with it at all for one night. Rooms are miniscule and have no amenities, but there is a good breakfast restaurant on the ground floor and its centrally located. As I recall the price was right, too.

I had never even realised that the Travelodge have a place at Southbank in Melbourne. It is obviously set back a bit from the river itself or I would have noticed it. I would expect that it is not going to be anything fancy, but hopefully clean and adequate. I have no idea of their prices but certainly wouldn't want to be spending much money on it. Southbank is quite a good area to be located in, but just in case you don't realize, the CBD is on the other side of the river but still easily accessible, only a few minutes walk.

I don't know the Aberdeen Motor Inn in Geelong but it sounds like a fairly basic motel. Once again, I wouldn't be hoping for anything much more than clean and adequate. From your itinerary it sounds like you might be intending to drive the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide. Is this correct? If so, Geelong is only an hour from Melbourne and not an appropriate place to be staying unless you are meeting people there. You want to be driving through from Melbourne to say Apollo Bay as your first stop. From Apollo Bay you can still use Mt. Gambier as your next stop but it will be a long drive via the GOR. I would stop over again at, may be, Port Fairy, before heading onto Mt. Gambier.

Hope this helps.